In an interview, Liu Heping talked about how to be an excellent screenwriter from his own point of view.
First of all, we must deal with contemporary relations. Liu Heping said: "Creators can't simply talk about keeping pace with the times, but more importantly, can they stand the test of different times." Take his work Ming Dynasty as an example. First broadcast in 2007, re-broadcast in 20 17, but more people like it. The reason is that in this drama, besides the story, there are also aesthetic characteristics.
Works need to follow the footsteps of the times. In No War in Peiping, "Comrade Jian Feng" never appeared, and he only spoke by phone, but all the audience were impressed. In Liu Heping's view, this is to follow the footsteps of the times, because people are familiar with the telephone today, which makes such a hidden role very easy to accept. Twenty years ago, the audience may not understand and accept it.
Liu Heping said: "Some things are popular with the public. Eternity is half and modernity is half. Shakespeare's plays are eternal, but the remake of Shakespeare's plays should be endowed with many modern elements. Therefore, there is a famous saying in western literature: eternity exists in modern camouflage. "
Secondly, deal with the relationship with real life. Liu Heping, in particular, doesn't like to hear the Creator talk about life easily. In his view, life is only the source of everyone's creation, but the final work is actually a parallel world outside the real world. "What can the real world see? Why read literary works? "
Works need to meet the spiritual and aesthetic needs of the audience. "Be sure to remember that the screenwriter should give the audience expectations!" Even if there is nothing in the world that has never happened or even impossible, there is nothing wrong with the audience wanting it to happen and writing it out.
Third, to be a good screenwriter is to constantly deny and revise your own scripts. Liu Heping's daily habit is to revise what he wrote yesterday, and then write the following script. He said: "Although it is very difficult to change one's own things, one should have a pursuit and take the works more important than oneself."
The fourth is learning. If you have a master, try to follow him. If not, you must find your own learning object in various ways. For example, you can take a script at home, watch a movie that you think is good, and try to turn words into pictures.
A good actor is also a screenwriter's master. Actors interpret roles through expressions, actions and language, and screenwriters need to learn from actors how to express roles through performances.
The production process of the whole industry is also the master of screenwriters, from artists' drawings, costume props to scenery. Liu Heping especially agrees that writers should follow the team. He began to follow the group from the Yongzheng Dynasty, went to the scene to learn about various departments and asked them how to turn words into images.
Moreover, it would be better if we could follow it to the later stage. The later stage includes film editing, dubbing, soundtrack and so on. In his view, a mature professional screenwriter should do this. "Many screenwriters have written scripts all their lives and never followed the scene. Professional screenwriters don't understand these things, don't blame others. "
In a word, Liu Heping thinks that for a screenwriter, all his thoughts should be spent on how to write a good script.